30 Years Ago, How the Panama Canal Boosted Conservative Politics

Thirty years ago this week, the US Senate approved the first of two treaties that transferred ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama. Conservatives were horrified and a struggling presidential candidate named Ronald Reagan grabbed the issue and ran with it. The rest is history rendered in the elegant prose of Adam Clymer's new book, Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right.